By LEVI PULKKINEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Published 11:00 pm, Thursday, April 18, 2013

A father and son accused of pushing bad auto body repairs on Seattle-area drivers now face a felony theft charges.

King County prosecutors contend Robert Mitchell and son Bryan Miller bilked 10 drivers they targeted in parking lots and streets in and around Seattle during the past two years. The father-son team is alleged to have pushed bodywork on drivers – mostly elderly men – and demanded outsized payment for the badly done fixes.

Mitchell, a 46-year-old also known as Johnny Mitchell and Robert Charmack, and Miller, 26, often held tools as they demanded money from drivers they approached in Costco and Ikea parking lots, according to charging documents. They’re alleged to have made hundreds of dollars through the scam, which they’re alleged to have used across Washington and Oregon.

Writing the court, Seattle Police Det. Chris Young said both men have a long history of targeting senior citizens in Washington and Oregon with an auto body repair scam.

Usually, the men approached their intended victims near their parked cars and offered to repair body damage at a low price, Young told the court. Miller and Mitchell would then apply wax or paint to disguise the damage and request payment.

“They insist the repairs are worth hundreds of dollars and the victims are intimidated into paying for the fraudulent repair,” Young said in charging papers, noting that Mitchell and Miller sometimes held crowbars as they demanded money.

The detective went on to describe nine Seattle instances during which the men are suspected of either bilking drivers or hunting for people to con.

Most of the victims were in their 60s or 70s, according to charging papers. While most of the alleged thefts amounted to several hundred dollars, one 70-year-old man is alleged to have been conned out of $760 after Mitchell and Miller “fixed” his car in the parking lot of the South Seattle Costco.

In Des Moines, the men are alleged to have followed a victim into his home and demanded cash, according to charging papers. Mitchell and Miller are alleged to have stolen the man’s debit card after he left it in an ATM machine; investigators claim they attempted to steal more than $2,000 from his account.

Confronted by police in that April 2012 theft, Miller described the thefts as a “stupid mistake” that would not be repeated, according to charging papers.

Both men now face a host of theft-related charges related to the scam.

Mitchell has been charged with four counts of second-degree theft and one count of second-degree identity theft, as well as six other felony and misdemeanor counts. He is a fugitive from Clackamas County, Ore., where he’s said to have scammed an elderly woman following a car repair.

Miller has been charged with one count of second-degree identity theft and five other theft-related counts. Miller also currently faces a forgery charge filed against him in Cowlitz County, Ore.

Both men were arrested April 9 and remain confined at the King County Jail in Seattle.